Published • loading... • Updated
Fires raged for thousands of years during ancient global warming
Researchers said fern-dominated landscapes helped sustain repeated fires for up to 300,000 years during the extinction interval.
- Fires raged across Europe for thousands of years during "extreme global warming" 201 million years ago, according to new research published in Nature Geoscience.
- The Triassic-Jurassic extinction wiped out three-quarters of all marine and terrestrial species when volcanic activity from the "supercontinent" Pangea's break-up released carbon dioxide, causing temperatures to rise 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.
- Study senior author Bas van de Schootbrugge from Utrecht University in the Netherlands developed a Palynomorph Darkness Index to measure fossil pollen colors, generating 15,000 measurements revealing a "Dark Zone" of intense wildfires.
- Ferns emerged as "true disaster species" that spread rapidly across disturbed landscapes and regrew from underground root systems after burning, with dried fern mats providing ideal fuel for massive wildfires.
- The fern spike interval lasted 40,000 to 300,000 years, prompting scientists to warn that combining climate change, deforestation and opportunistic species creates a "perfect storm" of ecological destruction.
Insights by Ground AI
26 Articles
26 Articles
InsideNoVA.com+24 Reposted by 24 other sources
Fires raged for thousands of years during ancient global warming
The mass extinction was linked to volcanic activity that resulted from the break-up of the "supercontinent" Pangea.
·Washington, United States
Read Full Article
Triassic inferno: Fires raged across Europe for millennia during past global warming
The end-Triassic mass extinction, 201 million years ago, is linked to volcanism that resulted from the break-up of Pangea and which pumped out vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, causing extreme global warming of 5 to 10 degrees Celsius. As a result, tree-dominated vegetation collapsed and the highly disturbed landscapes were colonized by ferns that formed savannahs across large swaths of what is now Northwest Europe.
·Douglas, United Kingdom
Read Full ArticleCoverage Details
Total News Sources26
Leaning Left1Leaning Right8Center17Last UpdatedBias Distribution65% Center
Bias Distribution
- 65% of the sources are Center
65% Center
C 65%
R 31%
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
